This chapter, and most of next chapter is thanks to my chief editor Ace-Triad, and of course, also in charge of fixing my SPAG problems
More author's note at the end for anyone interested to hear me blabber some more.
The third Wave is almost upon them. Mein has no access to the Dragon's Hourglass, but she imagines they'll have another minute or two before they'll all be teleported to Chief God knows where to fight. At least this time, they aren't going in only as themselves. The men from crusader families will be alongside them, with each hero packed their command limit full of troops that will help them in battle.
"We will be fine. The king will bring his best men and the Knight Templars of the church with him. And we'll have the crusaders fighting alongside us." Iris speaks to no one in particular. Honestly, it sounds like the heiress of House Amelia is trying to convince herself more than anyone else.
"Don't worry, Iris. I won't let anything bad happen to you again." The Spear Hero grabs Iris' hand, giving her some comforting words. "You hang back with P- Lady Melty, and have others protect you. I'll end this wave as fast as I can with my fellow heroes."
"Okay, let's review our strategy on how to deal with the Wave boss, and our overall formation one last time before we are summoned." Naofumi is adjusting his helmet for the thirteenth time since they were fully decked out in their equipment half an hour ago, he claps his hands together and looks at the Spear Hero standing shoulder to shoulder with him. "Motoyasu, what's the role for you and your party?"
Chapter 78: Red Wave Over Horizon
"We'll join you together at the center, as our frontline." The Spear Hero takes off his own newly made helmet to scratch his head, probably out of itchiness. Unlike the Shield Hero, the other three heroes aren't used to the new addition of a helmet to their armor set yet. "Iris, Bertia and Melty will hang back at Itsuki's party. Matsu will be with them, relaying battlefield information to us with her far vision, while Miya and her siblings will hang back and protect them."
"As you wish, Master Motoyasu." The lavender-haired leader of the adult-looking Filorials is no longer naked or unarmed. She wears a large, almost cape-like overcoat on top of dark brown undershirt that opens up both ways at the front, not unlike a door that's tied up by a cloth belt just like her siblings. Not a style that traces back to the roots of Seven Kingdoms, if the first princess remembers correctly. "My egg siblings and myself stand ready."
And just like Karasuba, both Miya and Mutsu have adopted katanas used by Zellus. It makes Mein wonder if what they are wearing is also traditional Q'ten Lo regalia.
"Speak for yourself, Miya. I want to get a few good kills in the Wave." Speaking of the devil, the 'black feathered one' openly defies her leader barely a few seconds later. So, it seems like she's going to be the devil bird of the Spear Hero's party. Well, considering how many more filorials he has over Naofumi, he's bound to get an unlucky draw just like Firo.
"Stay behind and guard Lady Melty is our first duty, Karasuba." Miya glares back at her sibling, clearly not appreciating the selfish desire of the black-feathered one.
"If she wants to run off on her own, you might as well let her." Naofumi looks back at the spattering filorials, despite them looking like young adults, they are clearly still children mentally. "She won't do a good job if you force her, and she'll probably get in your way more than help you."
"Well. At least the Shield Hero gets it." Karasuba smirks, as she pulls her arms behind her head.
"Very well, if that's what you want." Miya's frown doesn't disappear even as she slowly turns her face away from her problematic sibling. "But you are on your own, if you want to run off. I'm not sparing anyone to rescue you if you get in trouble, and leave our charges unprotected."
"I'm a predator, not an idiot, O Great Leader." Karasuba shows a bit of her teeth under the sun. "I will stalk my prey, and kill them with one precision strike. I refuse to let myself get surrounded."
"Ren, what's the role for you, and your team?" With their remaining time short, Naofumi stops paying attention to Motoyasu's birds and turns to look at the Sword Hero.
"We split up. My party can act independently of me, so they'll reinforce our right wing besides your party, and help you with the defense." The Sword Hero tightens his grip on the hilt of his sword for a few moments, before relaxing his hand again. "I'll stay on Motoyasu's side, help reinforce his party's offensive potential. And when we see the boss monster, I'll wait, and look for an opening on the flank, or get behind to take it down."
"Good, I trust there's no problem with me splitting your party?" Naofumi looks back at the Sword Hero's companions this time.
"There is none, Sir Shield Hero, Sir!" The knight Sir Beckter, unofficial commander of Sword Hero's companion, hammers his gauntleted fist on his chest plate. "Shield Hero or Sword Hero, we'll serve you to our best abilities and end the wave!"
"Well, I…" Wyndia looks between both the Shield Hero, and Sword Hero. Kind of interesting, considering how the dog girl behaves when she first met Naofumi, Mein would assume that she'd jump at the chance to fight alongside him. "There's no problem!"
"Itsuki, you and your team?" The Shield Hero turns to the Bow Hero last.
"Hang back, make a second line with my party and give you guys long range support. Picking off the flyers first. Fast moving target first." The way the Bow Hero speaks, especially with the slight tremor in his voice that almost calls back to his more unhinged days seems to show a sign of anxiousness just like his hanger on lady friend. Or maybe he's just that excited to face the Wave. "Push forward and join your main group if too many monsters get past you. Don't let you guys get surrounded and hit from two sides."
"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away…" Not far from her, the green-haired girl from the Bow Hero's party is repeatedly chanting some kind of mantra. Probably to help the useless weakling combat her mounting fear of going headfirst into a Wave with her hero.
Despite her own prominent Hibernia and Germania bloodlines, the first princess of glorious Melromarc can almost understand Rishia's anxiousness. After both her initial encounter with her first Wavespawn deep under the abandoned Lute mine, and participating in the last Wave, she isn't very confident about coming back unscathed despite her growth in strength.
"Bah! This useless frilly rider better make herself useful." Mald, the thuggish knight of Bow Hero's party, glares at Rishia, and mutters a curse under his breath.
"Nobody asked for your opinion, Mald of House Armure." Sir Crepe once again shuts the brute up with one single warning. It seems like despite all his bluster, Mald is all bark and no bite if he's afraid of a junior knight serving under Mother.
"Where's your bodyguard?" The Sword Hero suddenly turns around and asks the Shield Hero. Just as Yastuhashi predicted, people would notice his disappearance, especially right before the third Wave when the fighting and the possibility of the heroes facing danger would be the highest.
"Something important came up, I had to send him on an errand." Naofumi tries to act nonchalant as he gives the Sword Hero a slight tap on the shoulder to divert his attention. "Eyes in front. We are going to teleport any moment now."
"You sent your bodyguard away, Right before the third Wave?" Judging from Ren's persistent question, the Shield Hero didn't have much success with his deflection.
"It was a very important errand." The Shield Hero still didn't say anything, although his attempt at hiding detail itself would surely send a certain message to possible church spies amongst the heroes' party. The Sword Hero didn't get to let out further questions. As that's the moment when they are collectively pulled away from the village of Balafon and thrown somewhere else.
The sudden pull and drop disoriented the princess much more than the heroes' teleport skill. She takes a few moments simply staying crouched on the ground, trying to regain her bearing before looking up.
She is located in what looks like a grand valley, more so than the not so accurately named 'Harvest Valley' near Melromarc Castle. Which is more like a forested lowland situated right next to a mountain that was used to be rich in ore deposits.
Mountains that seem to rise into the sky on both sides clamp down on their position from both sides, with a shallow river that could go up to her knees running in the middle. There is barely any green foliage growing both on the lowland they are teleported on, or the mountain around them. What trees the place does have seems to be petrified, devoid of leaves of any color, and covered by stone more than bark.
Ousterran stone wood trees. Her geography isn't exactly the best, but even she knows that there is only one place on Medea where they are found in such abundance. The land of Gallia, more specifically the Wind Valley, near its capital.
The princess stands up to her full height and turns on her heels, trying to spot the pointed ceiling of the Cathedral of the Founder. No luck, the only things she can see from both her front, and her back is more of the valley that seemling stretches towards the horizon. That means they aren't close enough to the City of De Gallia to receive military support directly from Prince Joseph. Still, they should be able to weather through only the third Wave, with the amount of elite troops both the four heroes, and Father brought along. Right?
Speaking about Father and the troops, despite him being a single vassal hero, he brought along more troops than the four younger, summoned cardinal heroes put together, enough to make the lowland they are occupying feel overcrowded. Father's high command limit is something no one can take from him.
As for the actual troops he brought along, there are his royal guards who are equipped with uniformed heavy armor and armed to the teeth with both polearms and swords. The free fighters, who wear different styles, and grades of mishmash armors and weapons each suited to their own fighting style. The three remaining four riders, Count Valentin, Count Ludwig, and Baron Elric with their private army. And of course, His Eminence, Pope Biscas, surrounded by the knight templars with their red triangle tabard.
A well trained, and sizable army that has all the bases covered. They would make the best Siltvelt, or Faubley has to offer pause. With these men and women fighting by their side, the heroes should have nothing to worry about this third Wave, short of an actual Outer God invasion.
"Count Ludwig, take your Holy Blade and establish a second perimeter behind us, in case some of them get through us. Don't let any Wavespawn get through Wind Valley." Father gives a few quick glances at the surrounding terrain, no doubt formulating a battle plan as his royal guards form around him. "Baron Elric, take the high point with your Green Horn riders. Shoot the Wavespawn like fish in a barrel as they come at us. Valentin, you are with me in the frontline."
"As you command, Your Grace." The three rider commanders slam their fist over their heart, and go into action with their riders. Count Ludwig pulls back with the rest of his greatsword wielding, raptor mounting cleric knights. Baron Elric, with his great bow wielding filorial riders begin to climb right up the mountain to take the high point before the Wavespawn's arrival. Count Valentin slings his warhammer over his shoulder, and rides forward with the rest of his heavily armored demigryph knights.
"Sir Deimne!" Duke Febail's command feels much louder to the princess, due to him standing closer than Father. Or maybe he really is louder, due to his youth. "You have the command of Beige Ritter Division 2. Take the opposite cliff to Baren Elric. Give us crossfire support!"
"M-me?" The green armored archer riding atop a green filorial blink at the young duke's command, possibly surprised at being put on the spot. He recovers quickly enough as he slams his fist on his chest plate like the three riders. "As you command, my lord! Division 2, follow me!"
The filorial riding bow knights in beige armor quickly follow the young man's lead, beginning to hop up the cliff of the opposite side.
"Cousin Lester, take command of Division 1. You are our outrider and mobile responder on the ground. Get ready to reinforce weak points of the first perimeter, or pull badly wounded back to the secondary!" The duke turns to his blue haired cousin, and the heavier armored raptor riders of his men.
"As you command, my lord." The archer knight of Ullr flips up his raptor and hangs back with the rest of the beige armored raptor knights from House Yngvi. A comparatively safer task to the other group Duke Febail sent forth, yet no less challenging considering the much more complex scenario they would face on the low land.
"Archers, with me. Take position, triple wave formation. Keep the arrows raining down on the Wavespawn when they approach. Pick off weaker ones and shoot them down first!" The rest of the foot archer squad of House Yngvi steps up behind the duke, first line on their knees, second line on their feet, and last line has their arrows knocked, but not taking aim. Despite having a few words in political situations, it's clear that Duke Febail is at his element on the battlefield.
"Shouldn't you guys weaken the stronger monsters first?" Naofumi looks back at his ally, clearly confused by the duke's command.
"Our elite fighters can take the strongest ones the third Wave has to offer. But we'll still be overwhelmed if too many weak Wavespawn have us surrounded from all sides and wear us down. It's better we focus on cutting down their numbers." The duke gives a quick explanation to the Shield Hero as his eyes refocus on the crimson wave in the sky. "Focus on maintaining the frontline, we have your back!"
"Got it!" The Shield Hero runs forward, shoulder to shoulder with two of his three fellow heroes while the Bow Hero stays with their ranged fighters with Duke Febail. All of them have their weapons ready.
"Raphtalia, stay with the Bow Hero's group." Mein gives a quick glimpse over at the lost princess of Q'ten Lo, she sees Raphtalia already taken her adult form. "You'll be safer."
"NO! I trained for this! I'm staying with Master Naofumi and you!" Raphtalia stares forward, at the crimson sky with determined eyes. "I won't let what happened to my father and mother happen again!"
"Well, you don't need to worry about Raphtalia, you old hag." The princess nearly tripped over her feet when someone gives her a shove in the back, she's thankfully held back by Raphtalia. Mein turns around, and sees a short haired dog boy holding a Isaachian saber over her chest. "I'm here this time! That'll be all the difference Raphtalia will need."
Wasn't he one of the demi-humans tagging along the Sword Hero? Cheeky brat!
"Be nice, Keel! Big Sister Mein." Raphtalia frowns and scolds her old acquaintance, or maybe friend. "She saved me many times when after Master Naofumi bought me from the slave traders."
"You shouldn't even be fighting a Wave! You weren't someone who got into fights back home, like me. You should stay safe in a city or something!" Keel turns around and barrs his teeth and glares at both Mein, and Naofumi's back. "I bet they are just pretending to be nice to use you, that's why they went to buy slaves in the first place! If they really cared, they could have killed all those slaving fucks like the Sword Hero did."
She has to give the damnable dog brat some credit. She has incredible intuition. While her suspension on the Shield Hero's involvement is completely wrong, she's right on the coin with Mein herself. Or maybe the damn boy is just an ungrateful, paranoid little shit. Yes, most definitely the second one.
"NO! Stopping being so stubborn, Keel! Haven't we gone through this already? That's not what happened at all! Master Naofumi and big sister Mein have been nothing but kind to me, nursing me back to health, and taught me how to take care of myself-" Raphtalia, Chief God blesses her kind heart, actually tries to defend the Shield Hero… and Mein herself. But before she can go into a long tirade, she is interrupted by a loud voice from the other side of the lowland.
"Shut up or fuck off! You damn little piglet!" Mald blows the little mustache over his mouth, his loose jowl wobbles. "We are fighting in a Wave! Nobody wants to listen to your incessant mewling!"
Well… look who is talking! But at least she actually agrees with the thug this time.
"GRAU RITTERS! Kill the Wavespawn with me!" If Keel, or Sir Crepe wanted to say something back to Mald, they didn't get the chance. Halfway across the lowland that'll become the battlefield, Mein can hear Duke Dannan's booming voice screaming out curses, or perhaps his battle cry. A bit on the crude side for someone of high society, but it certainly gets the point across. And at least he has enthusiasm. "Kill them all! Kill! KILL! KILL!"
"Earth mages, create walls and pitfalls in the ground." By contrast, Duke Orphy's command is more calm and tactical. "Don't let the Wavespawn all come at us in a huge tide. Make the terrain difficult for them to traverse."
Powerful earth mages, such as Katarina's younger brother Lord Keith, immediately get to work, wave up an entire obstacle course of walls, and trenches stretching far into the distance almost as far as eyes can see. The Shield Hero joins them, converting his energy shields into his corporeal stone shields, erecting barriers in front of them.
"We'll talk about this… again. After this Wave." Raphtalia gives Keel a glare as she pulls her weapon out, and turns forward, ready to face the rumbling horde of death.
"Fine." The dog brat doesn't look any more convinced than before. She gives Mein and Naofumi another glare and blows his tongue at them. Childish, and annoying!
Maybe they can stick Firo onto him after the Wave. Considering how the dog brat badmouthing the Shield Hero, it shouldn't be too hard to have him catch the ire of the devil bird too. And with some luck, this dog brat will be the first, and only casualty of Firo's rampant tantrum. Nobody will miss a demi-human child refugee, and Naofumi will realize the consequence of not asserting firm dominance over the devil bird. Yes, that's a good plan. Killing two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking.
Music begins to blare from right behind them, and the group under Father's command. War ballad, no, more like a symphony of blood and thunder played not by tavern bards, but by magical instrumentalists trained in the castle. The upbeat song makes even Mein herself feel like her blood is boiling, not out of anger, but eagerness to face down against the enemies of mankind and triumph.
"First Wave, incoming." The princess can hear the voice of Matsu behind them, devoid of the mirth when she teases her elder sibling Kuro. "I'm tagging enemies… and creating telepathic links with you all."
Sure enough, Mein's field of vision almost instantly lights up with red, diamond shaped glowing light in the distance, rapidly approaching their positions. It's still too far for her magic to effectively reach the enemies, but the Yngvi host behind her immediately points their bows up heaven wards. Duke Febail's voice comes out right after. "Archers, fire at will!"
The young duke has to be making a mistake due to his youth, surely? Even the famed knights of beige can't hit something that's still this far away from them? A dark shadow suddenly lifted over the princess' head, almost blocking out the sun for a brief moment, as arrows, as thick as an oppressing rain cloud, flew through the air into the distance. Almost as soon as the first Wave of arrows left the bow, a second tide followed right afterwards, and quickly followed by the third and so on. The princess takes a quick glimpse back, and sees how the foot archers of House Yngvi are quickly switching positions, with the first line retreating into the back to reload and knock their arrows into their empty bow as the line behind them takes a step forward and fires. Almost as if they don't even worry about missing their target, or put any stake in the amount of arrows they are going to waste.
Which is more surprising, that when the first princess noticed the blinking light at the front which indicated enemies started disappearing. They are quickly replaced by even more enemies further back from the dimensional gash. But still! Dropping enemies they can't even see yet and only based on a target indication! No wonder the Beige Ritters were known as glorious Melromarc's best archers. At least till Baron Elric came along and brought some genuine competition with his Green Horn outriders.
"Flyers incoming!" Matsu's voice gives a new warning as blinking light starts to cover the sky as well as blanketing earth. Without the canyon stretching towards the horizon, Mein can actually make out some small blobs of darkness amongst the visual madness of a red sky with blinking white light. At least Matsu changed the color of her telepathic pin for flyers, or else they'll simply blend into the backdrop of the dimensional fissure itself.
"Visual contact on the ground!" The mounted archers atop the mountain shouts down a cacophony of alarm. Thankfully still unified enough to make their point across despite the number of different voices. Sure enough, the princess can start to make out vague, darkened silhouettes coming at them from the red horizon.
As the Wavespawn begins to draw closer, she can start making out some shapes. The princess turned adventurer is no longer the dainty, pampered damsel hiding in her palace protected by both a stone wall, and a metaphorical barrier of armed guards. Yet, even after witnessing some of the horrors Medea has to offer, it still makes her skin crawl at this particular Wave, for there is something genuinely repulsive about the shape of these particular Wavespawns. Almost as if there is something inherently… eldritch about their design.
Crawlers with elongated bodies, still too short to be something like a snake and looks more like a worm wiggles forward. Their pointy mandibles, sharp as steel daggers at the front chitting on the ground, either helping them with the motion of in anticipation of tearing into a man's flesh. Some of those creatures have four, six or eight segmented and armored legs scuttering across the torn up landscape with little difficulties. They have gaping maws or pincers that look sharper than a gutter beak's limb, rendering sharp beaks. Their bodies also take different shapes, rumbling bulbous blobs of flesh, or armored husks, all unnatural looking, making the princess contemplate what kind of unnatural substance must be congealing inside. Even if they can bleed the creatures, would their vital fluid be able to melt a man's flesh from the bone?
"Mages! Hit them hard!" Thankfully, the much more experienced veteran commanders didn't let fear paralyze them like the princess. The mage knights, and mage corp of Velthomar and Friege host begin to chant in unison, clearly preparing much stronger ritual magics over the much faster cast simple spells a single mage is able to throw.
Such limitations don't apply to their greatest mages, or those with powerful relics.
"[Valflame]." Duke Arvis leads the pack, as befitting the head of the Divine Crusaders and uncrowned king of Northern Melromarc. His dragonblood tome levitates in front of his chest, flipping open without the fire sage's guiding hand as if possessing its own life. The duke swings his opened hand forward, like a king giving command to his loyal subject as the symbol of Fjalar glows red. "[Hell's Inferno]."
A spinning red triangle descends down from heaven into the middle of the charging tide of the Wavespawn. A sphere of fire and heat, white in the middle and golden around the edge, brilliant as a second sun burst in the middle of the monster horde, incinerating those within its radius instantly, while tossing those around its blast radius into the air as the unfortunate monsters splatter against their own kind.
"[Loptus]." Not to be outdone by his father, the dark prince of House Velthomar stands side by side with his father. His own grimoire flows in the air surrounded by a mist of eerie dark purple mist. More sinister looking than divine, especially considering its descent coming from an ancient dragon cult that seeks to enslave humanity in its entirety. "[Darkness Terror Wave]."
A purple dragon of shadow, its body long and serpentine, rises up from the ground in the middle of the charging Wavespawn, tearing the monsters apart as it emerges from the ground. The avatar of Loptus, dragon of dark ambition roars its challenge at the monsters that try to take away a world that supposedly is his right to rule. The Wavespawn crumble, more like piles of dirty than eldritch monstrosities that threaten the world under the dragon lord's might. Their armored shells, or gelatinous bodies offer them no salvation.
"[Mjolnir]." Not one to be left behind by her husband, Lady Ishtar also steps right up and opens up her own magical tome. The black cloak of the thunder heiress bellows behind her, almost as if super charged by her magic. She lets the book flout in front of her, cupping both hands above her heads almost as if she's holding a pot, or perhaps imitating a warhammer. "[Thunder Lord's Hammer]!"
A sphere of purple lightning the size of a full carriage, so bright it becomes pure darkness forms above Lady Ishtar's hands. Golden sparks dance around its surface like vipers ready to jump up and snap at anyone daring to challenge its might. She swings her arms down, pointing forward, releasing the 'hammer' towards the still-charging Wavespawn. It plows through the terrain and monster alike, turning both into twisted and charred fragments.
Yet more monsters keep crashing forward like a tide despite their vanguard being wiped out. Even the hundreds, possibly over a thousand Wavespawn, are obliterated by three of Melromarc's strongest spell wrights using the power of their dragonblood relics. The Velthomar family, using all of their power, only manages to borrow the host of Melromarc and Cardinal Heroes for a few more minutes as more dimensional invaders claw and crawl their way through the breach.
As the Wavespawn begin to get closer to their formation, arrows begin to fall like rain from atop the valley cliff just like the Yngvi foot archers behind them. Both the Green Horn outriders, and the light, sure footed Beige Ritter filorial division have finished their climb, and have joined the war effort. At least, until the flying Wavespawn join the fray.
"[Meteor Sword/Spear/Arrow]!" With the Wavespawn now within a hundred paces from them, the heroes let loose their most powerful weapon arts. Pure energy, with the shape of spinning five point stars slamming into the horde monsters, blowing those in the central radius apart, while sending those further away flying back back.
"[Force]!" The Shield Hero didn't let his lack of offensive power impede him from helping out before the monsters reach melee range. Chunks of Wavespawn are tossed back by his miracles, making what monsters manage to close in more like a trickle of flurry rain than the ocean wave it resembles from afar.
The first princess pulls her concealed sword out of her belt. No need to be crafty when facing down against a massive horde of mindless beasts. What she needs now is sheer, unbridled power to help her survive this field of slaughter. For the first time since she first started accompanying her Naofumi on the plain outside Melromarc Castle, popping balloons, she finally has a proper casting catalyst in her hand. The effect is almost instant, or perhaps it's the effect of the magical symphony in the background. The first princess can feel her magic, as her own blood, burning white hot, ready to be pushed to the surface.
Still, she needs to be careful with her damaged heart. The last thing she wants to do is get lost in the moment, and over cast herself to death like she almost did against the mountain sized ancient thunder lizard in the lost Rabier County. She points her new sword and forward, letting highly concentrated fireballs emerge out of the star marrow core of her blade. Instead of making them fly straight at their enemies right away, she lets them hover besides her. Ready to release them at the most critical moment when these accursed Wavespawn get into melee.
The princess throws a sideway glance over at the Spear Hero's group. Sure enough, the strongest earth mage of the younger generation without a magic amplifying relic, Keith Claes is also holding back his hands. No doubt, he is serving as the figurative rear guard of the entire host. A contingency heavy hitter who is ready to step in and buy everyone a few seconds of breathing room in case something goes wrong.
Not soon after, the first group of Wavespawn finally reached their line. They are immediately torn apart by the collective steels of their fighters. Despite that, the heroes didn't draw blood with their weapon, when the Chalphy host of blue armored sword knights overtook them and formed an additional line in front.
"Fall back, and let us handle the melee, heroes!" Duke Oifey looks back atop his snow white filorial. Naofumi looks like he wants to say something, probably to object on account of how they were summoned to fight in the wave. "Your weapon arts, magics, and miracles are more helpful to us than you fighting on the frontline. But conserve your strength too. You'll be needed when we find the Wave boss!"
The Shield Hero wisely chooses to toss some more [Force] miracles over the Chalphy knights' head into the advancing horde of Wavespawn than fighting the duke for his share of glory. On the other fronts, Father's royal guards and free fighters, the Winchester demigryph knights, the Claus and Dozel hosts, as well as the sword fighters of the Issachians are also engaging their share of Wavespawn hordes.
"Flyers inbound!" Matsu's urgent voice makes the princess look up over her head. With the aforementioned monster types, she had expected some kind of winged monstrosities. Gliding through the air on a wide span of feather covered limbs, or leathered membranes. She should have expected that nothing spewed out by the Wave of Catastrophe would follow rules.
No, the flying Wavespawn don't look like some kind of birds, wyverns, or even insects at all. Instead, all of them look more like some kind of… water creatures. The way that they swim through the sky, scales reflecting the light of the red wave itself would almost look graceful, even majestic, if they don't have rows of teeth sharper than the daggers forged by the best smith, or having unnatural looking scarlet, leathery body that seems to be dripping with some kind of plague. She doesn't want any of these things to touch her!
The arrows stopped raining down at the Wavespawn running, crawling at them on the ground and started picking off the aerial targets. Shooting them down before they can threaten the land based The pressure immediately began to increase on their frontline, bending the Chalphy host backwards. Not yet enough to truly break the disciplined, and well trained Chalphy knights, but definitely putting everyone on the backfoot.
Mein lets out her highly concentrated fireballs surge forward, letting the contained fire and power blossom on the largest clump of Wavespawn monsters to give some relief to the brave Chalphy knights shielding them.
"[Earth Spike]." The voice of Lord Keith is calming, rather than roaring even as he releases what must have been the powerful spell work he's been holding back till this point. For the brief period during their forced courtship, Mein remembers him as a courteous, mild mannered boy who is perfectly content to let the whim of other people (particularly his adopted elder sister) guide his action, rather than single mindedly pursue his own fancy like most typical noble boys. It's one of his more endearing properties, if he didn't put his elder sister first before their courtship.
Still, she remembers one instance, where the two of them almost had some mutual feelings exchanged between each other. It was the time when she told him how she's having trouble controlling her own magic, which claimed the life of her nanny when it first manifested. And Lord Keith confessed that despite him being known as one of the strongest mages of his generation, he also had problems controlling his magic despite the earth element being known for its rigidity and steadfast nature.
"I hurt big sister Katarina with my magic. But I supposed I should stop feeling sorry for myself." The young Claes gives her an apologetic smile. "At least big sister survived, without any worse for wear."
Mein's knowledge about earth magic isn't the greatest. But the [Earth Spike] spell she remembered was a more middle of the road, area of effect spell that doesn't do anything particularly well. It pushes out a series of hardened stone spikes from the ground, that's large enough to tear apart a steed and skewer its rider. Sure, it can be useful to break a full cavalry charge. But the spell's weakness lies in how it inflicts actual damage using a series of stone spikes, yet having them divided across a large area. As a result, it isn't best at burying a small army like [Quake], or cause concentrated attack on high priority targets like [Stone Hydra].
The spell casted by Lord Keith is entirely different from the [Earth Spike] she knows. Giant pillars of earth, as tall as castle towers rise up from the ground, torn entire groups of Wave monsters asunder. Yet, that's apparently only the first part of his spell. As the giant spikes of earth crumble apart, burying more Wavespawn monsters in the process, a small legion worth of earth golems walks out of the spikes created by Keith, forming into an additional line before the Chalphy host. Or perhaps more fittingly, a wall that also grinds up monsters before they can pass through to the Chalphy knights.
Looking at the aftermath of Lord Keith's spell, it's hard to imagine her ever having a problem with magic, to the point he actually hurt the person he cared most for. Or perhaps, him hurting Katarina as a boy was what motivated the selfless boy to hone his magic enough to become the best earth mage of his generation.
On the other side where her father and the Pope make their stand, earth cracks and spews out meteors of fire, thunder cracks down from heaven, obliterating entire hordes of Wavespawns just like Lord Keith's altered, and enhanced [Earth Spike]. House Velthomar and Friege may lack a once in a century wizard of Lord Keith's range, the respective heirs with their dragonblood relics notwithstanding. But the sheer number of their mages means they can work together, and conjure ritual spells that borderline even forbidden spells in terms of power.
Even between the Wave monsters pressing down on them, Mein can't help but notice the Silessean pegasus riders are still being held back as reserve. In fact, so far the most these lady knights did were throwing some javelin to the backline of the Wave monsters as they remain grounded. Probably under Father's orders.
It makes sense, as the strength of these flying raiders of the sky is their ability to ignore any terrain difficulties, and terrorize the weak point of enemy defence. Such strength is rather useless in a Wave battle, when countless enemies bear down on everything in a continuous group that resembles a relentless tide. If they charge ahead without other troops supporting them, it would be the Silessean pegasus riders that get torn apart by the Wave monsters. Still, they may see more action once high priority targets, like boss monsters, and The Wave Boss finally show up. Better to let the lady knights, and their steeds, save their strength till' that moment.
Despite their army being pressed from both air and land, it seems like the situation has somewhat stabilized. In fact, considering the shape of the terrain somewhat creating a bottleneck, and the shape of their enemies, it almost looks like they are shooting fishes in a barrel. As long as they can hold back the Wavespawn, and wait till the Wave boss shows up, they should be able to beat back the third Wave without too much difficulty. As should be expected when Father has brought the best men both he, the Three Heroes' Church, and the Divine Crusaders has to offer.
"Suicide fishes! Coming down on us hard!" The words coming out of Matsu's mouth almost sounds comical. Yet, the urgent way she speaks it without a shred of mirth, the princess turned adventurer feels anything but. Mein looks up from the sky, and sure enough small dots begin to rain down them even faster than arrows. Without thinking, she waves her sword above.
"[Fire Serpent]!" A torrent of flame, almost alive, surges through the sky on Mein's command. It meets the falling fishes heads on. As the Wavespawn are engulfed by her spell, dozens of explosions light up the sky, and it's not her own doing despite the effect. The princess immediately shouts out her warning. "Watch out! They explode on contact!"
She doubts Father can hear her from the otherside of the lowland they are situated. At this moment, the first princess can only hope that Matsu's telepath webway can actually convey her message to all her allies. Thankfully, judging from the golden wall of the magic barrier erected by the church, it did. In the meantime, the princess focuses on controlling her own fire magic as it flies through the air, exploding as many of the crashfishes prematurely before her spell fizzles out. She's trying to put out a house on fire with a cup of water by this point, but she still has to do her best to support her allies.
"[Air Strike Shield]!" "[Sword of Revealing Light]!" "[Spear Wall]!" "[Shadow Mirror]!" Three of the four Cardinal Heroes immediately invoke their respective defensive weapon arts, and Bertia conjures up her dark magic.
Green barriers in the shape of a giant shield makes the monsters blow up harmlessly on its surface. Levitating swords of white light freezes them in the sky. Barricade of red spears detonates the suicidal fishes. Spinning vortex of darkness seems to swallow them whole. But still, enough manages to slip through their collective defenses. There are simply too many crashfishes to be stopped by four people, even if three of them are heroes.
"Formation change, [Hunter Shift]." The Bow Hero clearly lacks a defensive weapon art like his fellow compatriots. Yet, he's apparently dealing with the situation in his way. His party shuffles on their feet, rearranging themselves where Itsuki stands in the back, Rishia stands a few steps in front of him, while four more of his party members fan out in the front roughly shaped like an opened umbrella. All six of them immediately pull out their bows. "[Formation Weapon Art: Flying Arrow Storm]!"
An amber colored, ethereal light covers the respective bows of Itsuki's companions, taking the shape of the legendary bow in his hands. More arrows than even a best fast draw archer can fire off begin to rain up at the crashfishes, shining with the same light as their energy bows. Explosions, seemingly more numerous than there are stars hanging in the sky at night.
For a brief moment, the princess thinks that they'll live through this new wave of assault. At least until some of the crashfish manages to leak through all of their attempts at intercepting them. One in particular, charges down right at her. She only has a brief second to toss forward a badly aimed fireball at it, hoping to detonate the monster before it reaches her.
She missed.
The last thing she sees before her world is rocked by the shockwave, and the rumble of explosion is Raphtalia throwing herself over her, pushing both of them on the ground.
End Note:
So, this is one of my shortest chapters in term of pure word count. Since I suck at writing a chapter that's heavy in descriptive text. But with the start of 3rd wave fight on the way, I hope it doesn't feel like a short chapter.
Not much to talk about, since this is only the start of 3rd Wave battle. Melromarc gets a brief window to show the strength of their elite troops... until something goes to heck as expected. Because this is a wave fight, a (supposedly) world ending level threat where things get dire. Yes, the enemies are themed after Subnautica creatures. And for those who are knowledgeable about Fire Emblem 4, yes, I made the magic dragonblood weapons into the equivalent of a Super Robot War MAP weapon in this story (later SRW have MAP weapon with a single targeting higher damage variance anyways).